The More Things Change
by Golden-Black Dragon
Summary: One event can change the fate of millions, but as a wise man once said, the more things change the more they stay the same. Pretty much Dragon Ball Z, but an alternate timeline with some MAJOR changes. New roles for existing characters and new (OC) characters to boot, what will be different? What won't be? Find out!
1. To The Future

**The More Things Change**

**Prologue Pt 1: Towards The Future**

A/N: The Prologue proper is next chapter and this chapter functions more as exposition, and to set up one of the themes that will be appearing later.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing except any OCs used for plot/storyline purposes

Time, much like space is infinite, time unlike space however, can have many possible outcomes and one action can have many intended and unforeseen consequences. Somewhere in the vast ocean of space and isolated from time, or even in another plane of existence was the planet of the dragons. While officially a part of the Otherworld along with the planets of the Kais, it was also separate as the Dragons and the Dragon Kai were the overseers of the universe on behalf of beings that were much stronger than they were, mainly gods and something called The Highest One. As the higher ups in the hierarchy of existence rarely manifested themselves, the Kais were acting as their very capable representatives, with the current Dragon Kai Ryuuji in that number even though the number of Kais had been diminished somewhat over the aeons.

In a vast green field located on the planet of the Dragons sat a tall, well-built white-haired man clad in a full white robe with the kanji for "dragon" on the back and a white, wide-brimmed hat sat in a lotus position, the wind coursing its way around him as white bolts of electricity emanated from him as a reflection of his vast power even in comparison with others of his race including the eternal Dragons Shenron and Porunga. Ryuuji had opened his eyes and was now gazing up at the sky, watching as two dragons landed a few steps away from him and transformed into their human forms, both of them wearing armour.

"Ryuuji, do you think it was wise to visit the Saiyans and give them designs for armour, weapons and space ships"? The slimmer Ryu-Shin, Hiryuu began. "I'm sure you have heard stories about their savagery in battle, and their ability to become stronger after they nearly die, not to mention that enabling them to travel to other planets would create a lot of paperwork and headaches right the way along the line. Maybe you should've reconsidered", He had trailed off, as Ryuuji had fixed him with a glare that could have frozen a thousand suns to ice. Hiryuu observed the Dragon Kai standing up with a mixture of fear and admiration, having heard stories and legends about him, both amongst his race and what others had said about him.

"Hmm", The Dragon Kai was known more for his glacier-like levels of patience and understanding so he weighed up each individual word carefully before continuing, "The reason I visited them was because their sun was going to explode in approximately 5,500 years and I don't think it would've been right to deprive them of a fighting chance for survival. If it was the future of our race or any other, I would have done the exact same thing as I had done. Part of my duty is to preserve balance, and even wagering the future of one race to preserve that of others would have resulted in failure and I have seen enough of that to last a thousand lifetimes". At this he turned and walked away, silently observing the other dragon flying away and Hiryuu running after him, no doubt with more questions to ask. Ryuuji chuckled a bit, remembering what he was like when he was that age, before he became the Dragon Kai and inherited the responsibilities that came with the position.

"What kind of future can you see for the Saiyans after you've visited them"? Hiryuu, much to Ryuuji's satisfaction had managed to catch up to him as he had asked the question.

"I see many things but the thing that I see the most is that they have the potential to do whatever they wish with the strength that they possess and use that strength for good or for ill. And one day, they just might hold the fate of all the universe in their hands, us included, and I would much like to give the universe as much of a fighting chance as possible". At this, a stream of images flickered before Ryuuji and his lone observer, before at last settling on man clad in orange with a golden aura flaring about him fighting a being who would day exist in the future, the galactic tyrant Frieza. But, although the Dragon Kai could see much further than that, this was all the proof that his younger observer needed that his superior's decision was indeed the right one, even though it wouldn't seem like it at first. However, he wasn't the person who needed convincing as a blinding flash appeared in the sky and a being of impossible radiance descended from the sky and unfurled his wings.

"Tamriel", the Dragon Kai had stepped back in surprise, having not seen the seraph for a few hundred millennia, in fact he hadn't seen him since Rou Da Kai-O had been absorbed by Majin Buu and the monstrosity had been sealed away by his creator. "This is quite an unexpected surprise. I wonder what could possibly be the reason for this visit".

"I think that you must explain your actions to me so that I can relay the explanation on. I do not wish for you to lose your position and perhaps more, so choose your words carefully". The seraph waited for the Dragon Kai to muster a response, and sure enough, the response was swift.

"I visited the planet because in 5,500 years or so, its sun will go super nova and destroy the planet. My visit has given them the chance to escape their planet's destruction when the time comes and find somewhere they can call home, and allow them a chance to survive and develop, a chance that should be accorded to all races in the universe, fear should have no bearing on any decision that I make. I have felt fear many times in my time, and now I have no desire either to feel it again or to have others feel fear. So what if the Saiyans become stronger than what we can foresee, there is plenty of potential for good that is waiting to be revealed to us. Perhaps this is the chance that they need". The Dragon Kai looked at Tamriel, the seraph's eyes crinkling slightly in processing the information, looking for visions of the future that Ryuuji had created, and all the futures that could've been.

"The future is not ours to make alone old friend", Ryuuji began, "But the future is made by all. And I think that the future will be very different indeed, and I for one will be eager to see it". With that explanation proven satisfactory, the seraph had left, leaving him lost in his contemplation.

The future was waiting to be made.

**A/N: Will be explaining much more later, and I will add in explanatory chapters later on to do so. The rest of the prologue is going to be much, much, much less complicated. **


	2. End Of The Beginning

**Prologue Pt 2**

End of the Beginning: Bardock the Father of Goku

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for OCs that I might/will use

"Dad, why do you have to go to this Kanassa place"? Tora could hear his son's voice echoing somewhere behind him as he put on his armour.

This question had only cropped up once before, but he never thought of an answer. However, this was the first and only time that he had to think of a response, as the question was something that he genuinely had no response to.

"Well son, we Saiyans have been working for the PTO since the deal that we made with Arcos. In return for the Cold family not destroying our planet, we have to carry out odd jobs for them and these jobs usually involve flying to a planet and depopulating it in a quite violent fashion. After that the PTO swoops in and claims the planet for itself. Besides, we've been doing that for so long there's no reason for that to change as far as I'm concerned. Besides, it's not like Frieza's going to break the agreement any time soon either. You're going on a mission of your own soon son, but don't worry, it's to a planet whose inhabitants aren't strong as most are elsewhere. Better get going". Tora gently tousled his son Kenzo's hair before exiting their dwelling to find Borgos, Shugesh, Fasha and the leader of his squad, Bardock.

...

Bardock always harboured a healthy dislike for hospitals. This dislike didn't prevent him from seeing his new born son however.

"What? 10,000?! There's no way that can be right!" Bardock hit his Scouter in frustration as he took a look at the name-plate denoting the baby in the cot next to Kakarot.

"Well, it's not gonna help the brat much. His father Paragus has been found guilty of treason and will be sentenced to death today. The brat's going to be sent into space though so good luck to him!" The pineapple haired warrior rolled his eyes as he and every other Saiyan knew full well what the penalty for treason was regardless of whether the king had imagined the betrayal or not. Whatever Paragus had done or not, the deal with Arcos had resulted in making the king incredibly jumpy so the king meting out his paranoia on Paragus wasn''t surprising.

He leaned down to see how strong Kakarot was using his Scouter.

"How is his power level only 2?! I can't believe this! This hell-blasted piece of crap must be broken if it's giving such a low reading!" He glared at his infant son with an expression of intense disappointment, almost as if he had drank curdled milk.

"Hey, Bardock"! Bardock looked over to the origin of the call and saw Tora waving at him. "Fasha, Borgos and Shugesh are waiting for us! We've got to get going, and you don't look too happy about your kid, huh? Don't worry he's only going to get stronger! Now c'mon let's go!"

Following Tora, Bardock found the rest of his squad and after being settled in their pods, they made their journey to Kanassa.

...

Paragus was dragged kicking and screaming into the throne room of the royal palace and dumped unceremoniously at the foot of the throne.

"You stand, or in your case lie prostrate, to be charged with high treason against myself and the royal family. Your son is being put into a pod and sent into exile as we speak. Do you have anything to say for yourself before you die?" King Vegeta had his hands clenched to his throne, no doubt something to do with the Prince being taken as a hostage.

"You're accusing me of treason when you made a deal with a tyrant for the safety of this planet? Frieza's afraid of us, and with my son, we could build an army and annihilate that parasite! The only thing you've done is sit on your throne while so many of our race fight pointlessly. How dare you even think to accuse me of such a thing." This was cut off as the king lunged from his throne and began to punch Paragus in the face and stomach as well as kicking him repeatedly.

Despite the king's anger at the traitor's accusation, he knew that the situation had become intolerable. He also knew that he must rescue his son from the icy tyrant's grasp before it was too late..

"Kill him now. He might be right, but he still betrayed us." The king fired a burst of energy at Paragus, and watched as the blast consumed the unfortunate.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" The king waited for a few of his followers to proceed after him before making his way to the pods.

...

"Approaching Kanassa now, please keep your arms and legs across your chest. Now descending into the atmosphere, brace for impact."

Bardock heard the automated safety message and rolled his eyes. "What kind of asinine instruction is this? Oh, of course I'm going to keep myself inside the pod, why wouldn't I." He watched as the squadron's pods descended.

Having landed and disembarked, Bardock and his squad did a quick check with their Scouters to gauge the inhabitants' power levels. According to the readings they were getting, the readings weren't particularly high. Yet they were going to be massively outnumbered.

"So, what do we do now? Kill all these maggots one by one, or throw up a Full Power Ball?" Shugesh cast a very wary eye upon his surroundings, observing his comrades.

"Well, that could work. Bardocks' probably got a different plan though," Borgos, the tallest in the squad looked over at Bardock who was still in thought and smiled. These missions could go a few ways, with a Full Power Energy Ball being used to subdue the inhabitants. The other was just to fight and was inadvisable in these kinds of situations.

Despite the fact that the Kanassans could predict the future, they couldn't predict the oncoming attack at all.

After many hours, the quintet stood in a large crater with a supposedly dead body lying in front of them. Much to the squadron's surprise, the dead body sprang back to its feet.

"I can see the future"! This rather obvious statement was enough to make them turn around and confront the speaker

"You think you can get away with coming here and killing my race, well now I am going to make you suffer!" With this threat, the last Kanassan lunged at Bardock, striking him in the neck causing him to fall unconsciously.

Before the resurrected corpse could reach the rest of the squad, Borgos fired a quick blast of energy that caused the last Kanassan to combust.

"Well, that couldn't have gone better." Tora remarked with some sarcasm, "One of you get Bardock and carry him back to the pods we're going home". With this, they travelled back to their pods and after loading Bardock into his pod, began the journey back to Planet Vegeta.

...

He would never admit it, but the Saiyans made Frieza nervous. After hearing the stories of the Saiyans utterly over-running planets and getting how they became stronger than ever each time they almost died, Frieza understood the threat that they posed.

What if one of them, or more even, became Super Saiyans? He contemplated the possibility of them rebelling and even the possibility of them wrenching control of the PTO away from the Cold Family, forcing the Colds to become subordinate in the organisation again. He turned slowly to one of his troops with a slight smile.

"Could you bring Dodoria and Zarbon here please? There are urgent matters I wish to discuss with them. Hurry! Or - I will – how can I put this? Ah yes, hurry or I will paint the walls and floor of this ship with your blood. "This barely veiled threat sent the soldier scurrying to get Dodoria and Zarbon. Moments later, the mismatched duo walked into the room.

"Lord Frieza, what is that you require of us"? The fat pink skinned alien and the elegant teal-skinned alien asked simultaneously.

"Firstly, Dodoria, gather your squad and head to the planet Meat, a squad of Saiyans should be making their way there. Tell them of my plan before you kill their leader, Bardock Oh and make sure that all of them are actually dead if you don't mind. Zarbon, you will be remaining here. King Vegeta has requested we release his son, but I don't think that will be likely." He almost had to stifle a smile as Dodoria hurried away, and Zarbon retreated temporarily to a corner of the room.

"Ah, King Vegeta, I've been expecting you." The tyrant smiled as the Saiyan monarch stepped into the room some time after Dodoria's exit.

"Oh, enough of the crap. You know exactly why I'm here. Give me back my son, and then get the hell away from my planet, you bastard. And I'm not going to be asking twice either." This prompted laughter from the tyrant followed by a short sigh from Frieza as the laughter stopped.

"You were serious?! Oh well then. I suppose that I can make your death quick, if not painless." Frieza shifted into a fighting stance as the king lunged at him and throw a series of punches and kicks which the tyrant then dodged.

After a few more minutes of dodging, Frieza hit the king with a swift uppercut, and that killed him. Following this he blasted the dead king with a few energy blasts. Then simply waited as the body was disposed of.

"Oh, and don't bother keeping the king's death from the apes. The majority of them won't believe that their king is dead anyway." The tyrant returned to his hover-chair and waited with expectation.

...

Ignorant of his father's death, Prince Vegeta was seething with the memory of his defeat in yet another spar with his half-brother that had degenerated into a pointless brawl which the young prince had lost. The fact that Ortega, his father's bastard son was stronger than him was galling because HE was supposed to be the rightful heir to his father's throne given that he was the legitimate son. Vegeta's one wish was to one day surpass his half-brother and prove that he was stronger. With this far-off goal in mind, he planted the Saibamen and waited for them to sprout up.

After exhausting the Saibamen, he decided to blast the three of them. His power level had jumped over time to 10,000 - which still put him behind Ortega in terms of power. Maybe that was one of the reasons for him being the hostage instead of his bastard brother. What he didn't notice, was Nappa ducking out of the room; the general was usually much more diligent.

Nappa waited until he was outside the prince's quarters and in a safe enough place before contacting the queen for any updates, and what he did hear shocked him to the core.

"The king's dead, Nappa! He went over to Frieza's ship to discuss getting Vegeta back, and he's dead. I've been hearing rumours, but I don't know what's going on! Nobody will tell me anything; the PTO troops haven't been helpful either." Much of this was obscured by sobbing, but the message was painfully clear: the king was dead and Frieza's plans were being set in motion, whatever they were.

"About 20,000 are presently being evacuated to the existing Saiyan colonies based on the warnings of Cass, King Vegeta's advisor. I don't know if this will be done in time." The message trailed off due to more anguished tears before continuing, "Whatever happens, please look after the Prince for me." The message terminated, leaving Nappa in stunned silence as he walks back to Vegeta's quarters.

Vegeta had eventually found Nappa outside his quarters and had some urgent questions.

"Well, what is it Nappa"? The young prince turned to face the general.

"Well, there's been some bad news - your father's dead, and Frieza's plotting to wipe out Planet Vegeta. But, don't worry because I'm going to look after you no matter what happens."

...

_He could see a planet littered with bodies. Making his way across it, he could see his squad dead on the ground, their bodies at odd angles and wondered what could possibly cause such a thing. From what he could tell, the scene wasn't real, maybe it could be a vision of what was yet to come. _

"_This was the curse the Kanassan was talking about - to see the future and be powerless to change it. What if this vision is trying to tell me something?" _

_Now, Bardock stood watching himself charge at Frieza's ship, eager to avenge his fallen comrades, and prove that his race still had some pride and honour left. Not that it would do him much good, as Frieza's Super Nova attack kills him and decimates Planet Vegeta and the majority of its population. It was a good thing that the tyrant didn't know about the colonies then._

"Hey, he's waking up!" Bardock heard someone exclaim as he opened his eyes as the liquid from the healing tank drained and, as he stepped out if it, he found his squad overjoyed to see him survive.

"Frieza's going to betray us and destroy this planet. And, to start with, he's going to try and have us killed as well just to make an example out of us. Well, I don't think it's worth giving that cowardly bastard the satisfaction of murdering us all when our backs are turned. I'm not going to die without a fight! Instead of carrying out our mission, we'd better go to Queen Arrow. Now whose with me?" With this, Bardock and his squad began racing to the throne room.

...

Ortega, along with his sparring partner, Kale were currently being herded onto a ship bound for one of Planet Vegeta's colonies. The other option was to stay and most likely die horribly on the planet, perhaps ensuring the final doom of their race along with their own. Given that Prince Vegeta had been taken hostage, and Tarble had been forcibly evicted for being too weak, Ortega was the last Saiyan Prince not exiled or forced to work for an intergalactic tyrant. Given what was about to transpire, sending him into space wasn't a bad idea, after all.

"You ready to leave the planet, Ortega?" he heard Kale's voice echoing, as the two children progressed into the ship that would take them to their new home.

Having entered the ship, the two young Saiyans looked around at everyone present and felt the gravity of the situation. There was a good chance that they or anyone on the ship would most likely never see their home planet again, and much to their surprise, Cass had elected to stay and contribute as best he could.

As the doors on the ships closed, everyone in them stared down at the planet they were leaving perhaps for the last time.

...

Dodoria panicked as he released that Bardock's hadn't travelled to Planet Meat after all, and this was after he and his squad had slaughtered its inhabitants. Naturally, he dreaded what Frieza could conceivably do to him, from stripping him of his position to outright killing him just to make an example of him. All he had to do now was inform Frieza that his plan had failed terribly, and given the tyrant's temper, such a move would almost guarantee his death unless his lord was feeling merciful.

Saying a silent prayer, Dodoria contacted Frieza using the communications function on his Scouter. "Lord Frieza, there seems to be a problem with our plan. Bardock and his squad aren't here, and we've killed everyone on this goddamned shithole of a planet. That monkey must be smarter than I thought, or that mission he took to Kanassa must have changed something." he trailed off, still feeling incredibly nervous.

"Hello Dodoria. If you've spent enough time lollygagging then you should get back here as soon as possible and explain why Bardock's squad didn't get on-world. I somehow don't think that someone informed him of my plan and your part in it, but I have killed those in your position for much less. So why don't you get here as soon as possible and I will try to be merciful." The connection went dead and Dodoria breathed a sigh of relief as he motioned to his squad to get back in their pods and return to Frieza's ship.

...

"So, you're telling me Frieza plans to destroy Planet Vegeta because of his fear of us? And, to accomplish this, he lured you and your team away on a false mission just to divert attention away from what he was planning? Is there any way for us to fight this?" Queen Arrow from what Bardock could tell, was still in a state of shock from the king's death.

"Yes, but to do that we would need to raise an army and fight to regain all that he has taken from us; we must fight for our freedom. You must spread the word; tell them what happened to the king and we need all the help that we can get. Frieza's got his troops in orbit around this planet - no doubt we have to account for that as well. My squad and I will be leading the charge of course."

Meanwhile, Kenzo watched from his pod as Kakarot was placed inside his space pod.

"So, what planet am I going to," Kenzo asked one of the technicians, "Well, you're going to Earth along with the baby. But, don't worry; most of the beings on Earth aren't that tough so you'll have no trouble.

After a few hours, a sizeable army gathered in the throne-room in the royal palace. The queen gave Bardock a look that was supposed be a slight nudge for him to speak.

"I'm sure many of you are wondering why you're gathered here, but I assure you that it's for a good reason. You see, I had a vision in which Frieza wiped out our planet and we did nothing. I saw my comrades die before my eyes but I had a chance to change that. They lived to fight one more battle. Frieza has betrayed us, murdered our king in cold blood and holds our prince hostage as part of a deal that no longer applies because he broke it. He thought he can take everything away from us. We've got this chance to take everything back but I know that death is better than serving that coward." He watched as cheers erupted from his audience and Tora, Fasha, Borgos and Shugesh all clapped.

With this speech out of the way, the Saiyan army followed Bardock and his squad outside and began their flight towards Frieza.

...

Possibly, the last thing any of the PTO troops expected to see was an army of Saiyans flying towards them, and their roaring for freedom from Frieza's tyranny - the most vocal of these coming from Bardock. The story surrounding him was how he foresaw the deaths of his squad and gathered an army instead, causing fear to overtake and freeze them instead of self-preservation

"Where are you, you coward?! Come out and face us Frieza, we know how much you fear us! We know your stupid soldiers do at any rate." Bardock's roars and insults could be heard for miles as the Saiyan army charged and blasted their way through the PTO troops straight to Frieza's ship.

"Lord Frieza, there seems to be a lot of commotion from outside the ship. Apparently the Saiyans are rebelling against you and demanding their freedom, of all things." The teal- skinned pretty boy gave a melodic chuckle at this development, despite Frieza not finding it nearly as funny.

"Hmm, Dodoria, you were supposed to kill those five weren't you? And, I know you explained this to me, but why are they alive and leading an army against us? Do you not see this as a problem? And, do I have to do EVERYTHING myself around here?" Frieza, in his hover chair, began the ascent outside the ship.

The Saiyan army stopped a short distance from Frieza's ship and they stared down their erstwhile oppressor, having left bodies in their wake. Bardock and his squad stood at the head of the army, arms folded in defiance.

"You know what Frieza? We're done working for you! All of us are finished doing your dirty work, and you can go and destroy planets by yourself. You think you can betray us and expect us to just let you murder us without a fight? You can try and oppress us all you want, but really you're just a filthy coward like the rest of your family, who's afraid of everyone except yourselves. You may have taken everything else from us, but you can never take our pride! C'mon let's show this bastard whose really in charge around here! RIOT JAVELIN"!

The Saiyan army launched their attacks against Frieza, only to have them absorbed by his Super Nova, which the tyrant then launched at them. Bardock watched in horror as the sphere of burning energy consumed all in its path.

"_Damn it all, but revenge will be sweet Frieza! You think you can kill all of us?!" Bardock subsided into the blast, but before he did, he had one last vision. _He saw his son facing Frieza and smiled, allowing death to overtake him

...

Cooler watched as his brother destroyed Planet Vegeta with impunity and knew that he'd pay for that mistake. Almost as if on cue, Saulza appeared in the main room of the ship.

"Monsieur Cooler! Your brother has destroyed Planet Vegeta, and there have been ships leaving the planet as well. Should we pursue them?" Cooler's gaze then travelled to footage of ships leaving the planet and two small pods heading to a planet called Earth.

"No, it's high time my brother learned from his mistakes. Don't you think?" This was said almost with a hint of distaste as Cooler flicked off the screen.

...

It had been a long journey, but the pods containing Kenzo and Kakarot had landed on Earth. And Kenzo's pod was the first one to open. Having figured out how to get the pod open, he opened his comrade's pod and took Kakarot out of it. What they had to do now was to find out where the hell they were, and to do that, they had to get walking.

While walking through the forest, they saw an old man in an orange or yellow-orange robe with black sleeves and a green hat.

"What in the world? Maybe you're orphans. Well, I guess I don't have much of a choice. What are your names? I'm Gohan, but I'm sure you know that, seeing as I am a master of martial arts and a friend of the Turtle Hermit. What are your names, anyhow?" Kenzo shook his head and handed Kakarot to the old man.

"I'm Kenzo, and the baby you're holding in your hands is Kakarot mister".

"Kakarot? Hmm, I don't like the sound of that. How about Clark? No, that's been done before. How about Goku?" The old man gave a smile as he lifted the baby in the air.

As the years passed, Kenzo, and the now renamed Goku, grew up on a planet where they were strangers to. Although they made new friends along the way, their friendship remained firmly intact.


	3. For Hate's Sake

**Prologue Part 3**

For Hate's Sake

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the OCs. Any references to any other work(s) are the property of their respected authors.

"_To the last, I grapple with thee; from hell's heart, I stab at thee; for hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee". _Captain Ahab, Moby Dick

Albert Gero strove for perfection from an early age and was recognized as a child prodigy before graduating from university in his early teens. His desire for perfection real or imagined led to his dream to eventually replace all humans including himself with cyborgs thus creating a planet populated by perfect life-forms. However, this dream was partly exacerbated by the fact that his children didn't excel in the same way that he had done which led to him being increasing disappointed with and detached from them. Even before his quest for vengeance, he increasingly spent more time in his laboratory and grew to view his creations as his own children.

Eventually, the good doctor was offered the position of head scientist in the Red Ribbon Army which was something that he initially resented because the majority of hits high-ranking members were his intellectual inferiors. However, Dr Gero appreciated Commander Red's ambition and decided to help achieve them with his true children despite Red's obvious Napoleon complex. After 7 failed attempts, Dr Gero finally created an Android designated Android 8 the only caveat being that 8 was pacifist in nature and therefore useless to him. Currently, he surmised that 8 had long since been destroyed or lived in blissful seclusion, something that was more befitting of his pacifist nature.

What had finally derailed his plans was the defeat of the Red Ribbon at the hands of one Goku, who had destroyed his creations as well. After this event, his now grown-up children forced him to cut off all ties with his numerous grand-sons which only hurt him further although he found a way to get around the ban. By then however, it had become too late and Dr Gero had become increasingly unmoored and obsessed with fulfilling his revenge against Goku for destroying his life's work. His long-suffering assistants had since left him alone to work in his many secret laboratories and nurture his madness without being disturbed by anyone.

The cry, "To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee" could be heard from within his main secret laboratory for days at a time, as the doctor relived the memory of Goku destroying his creations and destroying the Red Ribbon Army so that it would never trouble anything again.

The Androids designated 9 through 12 were failures, but the Androids 13 through 15 were successful but Dr Gero had decided to activate them in Age 767 if his plan of revenge had failed. The Android 16 was a success despite its overwhelmingly gentle nature, so he had decided to activate the Android when he figured out a way of fixing this defect. Androids 17 and 18 had designs, but what he needed to find was humans to turn into machines and this was why he had created Android 19, the perfect child also, Android 20 was designed in order to transfer his mind from his human body to his perfect machine body and was therefore a success for the most part. His greatest creation, the Bio-Android Cell would require years to complete and would most likely not be completed in his lifetime.

Currently, Dr Gero was sitting in his lab, contemplating just kidnapping the humans necessary for the process of turning them into Androids. Any previous attempts to create Androids 17 and 18 using non-organic forms had failed, but as the saying went, desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Android 19, I have an errand for you!" He gave a satisfied smirk as the alabaster skinned Android walked into the laboratory and kneeled before him, a being so much more obedient to him than his biological children.

"What is that you require of me Master?" 19 stood up and bowed to the doctor in obeisance.

"19, I would like for you to find the ideal humans that I need to create your brother Android 17 and your sister Android 18." He watched as 19 gave an imperceptible nod and salute to him before continuing, "As this is a mission of utmost importance, I wish to accompany you on it so we can find the right ones." He handed the Android photographs of the humans that they needed before stepping out into a mode of transport that could fit them and their intended targets without making them look suspicious.

After an uneventful journey they arrived at a city and could see a young man with black hair and a young woman with blonde hair. "I've found you now," Dr Gero muttered under his breath, rubbing his hands together with an expression that could be described as gleeful.

"19, get out of the car now, and try not to hurt them too much." The artificial man nodded at Gero as he stepped out of the car and walked towards the siblings.

"Hey, who the fuck are you? Are you a cop? We haven't done shit." The young man shoved 19 and was horrified when the Android just stood there with a passive yet calculating stare in his eyes.

"I'm afraid that you're going to have to come with me, whether you want to or not. Now, cease this foolishness or I will have to hurt you and Father does not want me to hurt you too badly or he will be most displeased. And I have no intention of disappointing Father." The reference to Gero as the machine's father was all down to programming as the doctor wanted something more obedient than his own children.

"I don't give a damn who your father is, I'm not going anywhere and if you have a problem with that then it's too bad. And if you won't leave me and my sister alone, I'll just have to make you!" And with that the young man charged forward, only to be blocked by the Android and swiftly incapacitated.

Android 19 slowly turned to the young woman and smiled as she promptly backed away from him. Of course, this only prompted the artificial life-form to rush closer to her as he glided across the ground.

"What did you do to my brother?! Hey, you better get away from me or I'll call the cops! Whatever it is you're planning you better stop." This last statement trailed off as 19 merely punched her in the stomach and delivered a swift chop to the back of her head. With this done, he picked up one sibling and carried him under his left arm while carrying the young woman under his right arm as he walked back to the car. With this accomplished, 19 looked for a sedative that would keep the siblings unconscious and administered it to them with Dr Gero looking back in approval. After this was accomplished, 19 closed the boot of the car with the siblings inside and got into the passenger seat.

"Did anyone see us 19? I don't want anyone to catch us and start asking us unnecessary questions because this would be very hard to explain to people. And I would hate not to be able to carry out my revenge, especially now I have part of what I need to make it happen." The mechanical being shook his head and they made their journey back to the hidden laboratory with haste.

Within hours of returning to his laboratory, Android 19 had set up a work space for Dr Gero including all the necessary equipment for inputting mechanical parts into the human siblings currently prone on the table. He could barely stifle his smile as he watched the Android working, now his revenge could begin and before long, Goku would be utterly helpless. However, his triumphant looked in doubt as the male stirred on the operating table and sat up in shock at what was transpiring.

"What the hell is happening? You can't do this to us, you can't! This isn't right, I've got to get my sister out of here, this is wrong and you can't get away with this!" The screams would soon trail off as Android 19 slammed the young man's body against the table repeatedly, choking him as a stronger dose of the sedative was administered. He did the same as the female showed signs of stirring.

Of course, Dr Gero had stopped letting principles and scruples get in the way of the achievement of his goals many years before the kidnapping had occurred. Now, his aspirations to create the perfect life-form and finally kill Goku were all about to come to fruition in his mind, as these two future androids would be absorbed by his ultimate creation Cell. If he was prone to pointless clichés he would have thrown his head back in rapturous, thundering and maniacal laughter and shout his plan from the rooftops but he was much smarter than that if his super-genius level intellect was any indication.

After many months and sleepless nights of rigorous work, Androids 17 and 18 were finally completed. Dr Gero stood at the end of the table so he could face his creations and contemplated them with some satisfaction as he knew that if they couldn't fulfil their purpose then his other creations would be well capable of doing so, especially Cell. He grinned and motioned for Android 19 to come over.

"Right, 19, you're going to take them away and put them in their own containment units until the time is fit to activate them again along with 16. I'm sure that they will be willing to co-operate given the fact that I have programmed them with the sole purpose of killing Goku and I don't think that they'll violate that programme no matter how much they'll want to. And while you're there 19, could you bring out the Android 20 body, I think it's time that we get to work before I die. I'm afraid Cell will have to be completed using the computers in one of my other hidden laboratories". Android 19 hurried off with the unconscious newly christened Androids 17 and 18 towards the containment units whistling an oddly happy tune for an android. Dr Gero observed the Android leaving and smiled at the prospect of his revenge coming to fruition especially when all those people who had thought him mad for saying that it was possible to create artificial life-forms, he couldn't wait to show them how much they were wrong especially if they could die doing it.

Android 19 returned with the body of what would be Android 20, Dr Gero smiled at the fact that he could become one with his own creations, one with his true children and one day placed at the head of an army of artificial beings spreading across the Earth and throughout the universe. "Yes", he sneered, "All those who are inferior to my creations shall kneel before Gero or be annihilated or build more machines to conquer. Imagine it, Dr Albert Gero, Emperor, God and Father to all machines forever and ever. I will deliver the universe from inferiority and remake it in an image of purity, an image of machines free from all imperfections. SIEG GERO! SIEG GERO! SIEG GERO! IT WILL ALL BE MINE AND IT SHALL BE MINE! I will show the universe what perfection is." The mad Doctor finally allowed himself to give into clichés and laughed loudly, aware of the momentous opportunity that had presented itself to him, an army of his true children living forever, now his dream would finally be realised.

"Are you alright Father"? 19 had also been programmed to be utterly loyal to Gero, and that loyalty would present itself on and on perpetually, "You seem out of sorts, maybe you are excited that we are finally underway." At this, there was an exchange of nodding and smiles.

"I am quite alright 19. I seem to have been caught up in what momentous an occasion all this is. Hmm, I think that we shall be getting underway soon then 19." He smiled before lying down on the table and watching 19 give him a dose of sedatives before his creation and his child began working on transferring his mind into the robotic shell of Android 20. It would have taken many years, but finally his dreams and his revenge could be fulfilled at once now that immortality was but a few short steps away from him and nothing could thwart him now.

**A/N: If there's any questions/issues/feedback/comments then feel free to air it out, that's what reviews are for anyway. Sorry about the lack of updates, but I'm just fine-tuning details of the story so I don't contradict myself.**


	4. Day Of The Dead Zone

**Chapter 1: The Dead Zone**

"Well Mrs Son, I'm happy to report that you've got twins. Brothers to be more exact." The relatively young doctor handed the twins to Chi-Chi who cradled them in her arms.

"There are no complications except for the fact that they've got tails. Would you mind explaining this to me? I've never encountered such a thing and this is quite the curiosity. And correct me if I'm wrong but aren't you Goku? I'm pretty sure you were the guy who defeated that green man in the last World Martial Arts Tournament. Or I'm confusing you with somebody else." The doctor looked at the pine-apple haired orange-clad man with a strange expression.

"Yep, you got me." Goku gave a warm smile to the doctor as Chi-Chi handed him Gohan and Gouki to hold for a few minutes before handing them back to her. "So, what were you asking me about doctor? Oh their tales, well I know the reason for that. You see, I was originally from a planet called Vegeta, and well it was destroyed and my friend and I were sent to Earth. We were supposed to have destroyed it, but I hit my head and we decided to live on this planet instead. And the rest is history." Goku scratched his head as the doctor sprinted out the door muttering about how he needed a strong drink.

"Well, I hope you're happy Goku. We're just going to have to find a new doctor because you scared this one away. I know that needles scare you but this is unacceptable. You'll be driving away doctors by the dozen at this rate! Honestly, you've got to think before you say things. You can't just tell people that you're an alien you know." Chi-Chi gingerly sat up with the twins in her arms.

"Anyway, what do you think we should name them?" The conversation soon drifted to a different topic.

"I think we should name the older twin Gouki and the younger twin Gohan after my grandfather. Well, he was my adopted grandfather but he still raised Kenzo and me. The twins really seem to like the names as well." Sure enough, Gouki and Gohan were very happy with the names they were given and expressed that happiness.

"Look, Goku I know that you're going to want to train the twins when they're old enough," Chi-Chi began, "But I think they should have the chance to get a proper education as well. What kind of parents would we be if we didn't want our children to be educated? And don't pout or make that face either." She stifled a slight laugh as Goku crossed and uncrossed his arms. Obviously, thinking of a compromise to the issue would be very important they didn't know it yet.

"I don't think we should rule anything out Chi. I mean, there's no telling what could happen. It'd be a good idea to train the boys, but if you're not willing I could just get Kenzo or one of the others to help out if he's not too busy looking helping Launch with Touma. Or I could get Master Roshi to help me." This provoked a less than happy reaction from Chi-Chi to say the very least.

"No way will I let that old pervert train them; he's probably got all sorts of dirty magazines in that house of his! I can't believe you're even suggesting it! Have you lost your mind? Can you even hear yourself right now? If we're actually planning on it, then why don't you promise me that he won't be a corruptive influence, alright?" The sharp tone in his wife's voice was more than enough to convince Goku to not argue with Chi-Chi on this issue.

"Okay, I promise that Roshi won't be a corruptive influence on our sons and I'll make sure of it. Besides, we don't have to worry about training Gohan and Gouki until they can walk anyway. Or maybe I'm being paranoid or something I don't know. But then again we can't be too careful." Goku was right of course, but he had no idea how right he would be.

...

Kenzo helped his wife Launch into their house somewhere in an outlying suburb of West City, his wife held their infant son Touma in her arms. Kenzo had named his son after his father who he had known before the latter's death even if he all but forgot about him. He knew that if anything were to happen to himself or Launch, he'd want Touma to be able to remember them. Kenzo had wrapped his head around the idea that he was an alien exile on a foreign planet with no means of getting home and that he didn't want to either thanks to Launch even if their relationship was utterly unexpected for both of them.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you worried about the baby? Maybe I'll just shut the door, huh?" Kenzo stepped in as Launch closed the door behind them with one hand as she held Touma in the other.

"I'm fine, just thinking about how we met that's all. Remember when Roshi hit on you and you got angry about it? I always thought that you'd have ended up with Tien instead of me if he hadn't have gone and patched things up with the Crane Hermit. But I think that we've done alright though. I'd never really thought that it'd be possible to find what we've found but I'm glad we did." Kenzo gently took Touma from Launch's arms and sat down, marvelling at his small form and how peaceful he looked.

Launch sat down carefully and brushed some strands of hair away from her eyes. "Umm, honey, I'm going to feed the baby, so you wouldn't mind turning around? I know you've seen those plenty of times, but c'mon." Kenzo turned around and let Launch feed Touma in peace while he went and grabbed some food.

"Honey, do you know what happened to the green guy?"

"Goku kicked his ass in the World Martial Arts Tournament and Piccolo disappeared since. Besides, he's off licking his wounds somewhere and even if he comes back, Goku could still take him no problem." Kenzo piled food upon his place and ambled into the living room.

"Well, if he does, then I'll just train Touma then. Besides, Goku's going to try and convince Chi-Chi to train his kids if he hasn't done already. And it'll be a good idea." Kenzo paused between bites of food to gauge Launch's reaction.

"Alright, I guess it wouldn't hurt to train him when he gets older." Launch gave Kenzo a kiss on the cheek as she stood up to put Touma in his crib. "I'm just going to put Touma in his crib and sleep. It's been a really long day. G'night." Even though it was clearly day time, Launch made her way to their room and fell asleep.

...

It had been four years, and in those four years, Gohan and Gouki were old enough to be trained by Goku and his old teacher Master Roshi on the condition that they focused on their education too. Naturally, Goku and Master Roshi had ignored this compromise with there being more time dedicated to training the boys instead of studying. This would have been fine if both Gohan and Gouki had the same enthusiasm for training as each-other. However, Gouki was much more willing to train than his younger twin brother who didn't want to train. Gouki had, as Goku and Master Roshi observed, taken to wearing a child-sized version of Goku's orange training and fighting gear. Both children had hidden potential that just need to be drawn out however and that process would take time.

"Gohan, Gouki, Roshi and I are going to catch some fish and we'll be back soon! Don't wander off or go anywhere. Just stay put okay?" Goku leant down and gently tousled his sons' hair before leaving with Roshi following behind him.

"Goku are you sure that leaving Gohan and Gouki alone is a good idea? What if they get kidnapped by someone looking to draw you out?" Master Roshi was a little worried about his best student's kids because Goku was being irresponsible and didn't know the danger Gohan and Gouki could be in.

"I'm sure they'll be fine. Besides, they know this forest as well as I do so if anything happens, they can go and hide or wait for me to come back. But I don't think anything will happen because they're strong kids." Goku frowned slightly as Master Roshi rolled his eyes behind his omnipresent sunglasses.

Gouki didn't release that his father and Master Roshi had left as he was still throwing punches and kicks against a tree in between attempts at flying. Gohan on the other hand had sat down and held his knees close to his chest, pulling his hat down over his eyes as he did so. Gouki knew that Gohan was going to start crying at any moment, much to his chagrin.

"C'mon, Dad's going be back with dinner soon and then we can get back to training! You're always acting like such a baby! It's so embarrassing Gohan, it's like you can't stop crying," Gouki sighed as Gohan started crying. "Oh shut up will you? I'm sorry! Now please stop crying and let me train!" This only caused Gohan to start crying more.

Gouki could hear footsteps somewhere in the forest and motioned for Gohan to keep quiet. He could hear voices and they definitely didn't sound like Goku or Master Roshi, they sounded different somehow, they sounded almost evil and Gouki knew that they weren't in the forest to make friends or swap recipes. "Uh, Gohan, do you have any idea why anybody would be after us?" Gouki looked at Gohan who had stopped crying and wiped his arm across his face.

"I don't know, maybe it's because of the Dragon Ball. Dad told us that you need all 7 of them to grant wishes, but it's weird because Dad and his friends always know where to find them." Gohan gave a slight shrug of his shoulders as he stood up and listened to sound of footsteps.

Sure enough an olive-green skinned creature stepped into their line of sight followed by a taller blue-skinned creature with white hair and an oddly grey-green skinned creature with equally out of place red hair. Each of them wore armour that was essentially a darker version of their own respective skin-colours, which was quite confusing for most observers. The fact that Ginger, Nicky and Sansho had spent months gathering the Dragon Balls from their respective hiding places and the fact that the last one they need was right within their grasp was incredibly gratifying. Not only that but there was a very good possibility of reward when Garlic Senior was wished out of his forced exile in the Dead Zone and at the rightful head of what remained of his army, but this was a though that had to wait until after their mission had ended. Now, they just had to get those brats without the great martial artist Goku stopping them, which was going to be a challenge as he knew the mountain and its environs better than they did.

Ginger's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the kid with the 4 Star Dragon Ball on his hat turn around slightly, but he was swiftly incapacitated by Sansho before he could make a sound. This would throw up some more problems as the other kid would no doubt notice something was up and go looking for his brother or an adult. Needless to say, Ginger was feeling incredibly nervous as he observed the other kid glancing about the forest.

"Nicky, get the other kid now because he's going to blab and we don't him to blab now do we? Because if he does, that martial artist guy is going to find us and interrupt our plans, he was a former world tournament champion for crying out loud. So please do me a favour and STEP ON IT before he runs off. If you'd spent more time doing your goddamn job instead of worrying about your appearance we wouldn't be in this mess! Let's go!" Ginger gave Nicky a sharp kick that told the latter to get a move on.

"Gohan, I didn't mean to make fun of you for crying! Where are you? Seriously, I'm getting really worried now. You'd better not be hiding in the forest again! Mom's going to have a cow when she finds out I left you in the forest again!" Gouki shouted into the distance and waited for Gohan's response but it didn't come. Unfortunately for him, he saw a blue-skinned human-like creature walk towards him who was intent on kidnapping him.

"What did you do to my brother you bastard? If you hurt him, Dad will hunt you down and kill you! Yeah, that's right; my dad's the great champion Goku! He's going to show you no mercy when he finds out what happened!" Gouki dropped into a fighting stance hoping that his outburst would unnerve the blue man. Unfortunately for him, it didn't. It only caused Nicky to laugh at the temerity of his would be captive.

"Oh, your brother's fine." Nicky gave a surprisingly effeminate giggle and continued, "And, if you don't resist too much you'll be fine too. Because I don't want to hurt a child you know? Garlic wants you both alive not dead for crying out loud." This wasn't enough to mollify Gouki who merely lunged at Nicky.

Gouki threw some punches at Nicky who merely dodged them before trying to hit Gouki, who flew up into a tree and dropped down on Nicky. Gouki had gotten the drop on his more experienced opponent and proceeded to punch, kick and scratch Nicky's face before being thrown off. After having struggled to his feet, Gouki dropped into a fighting stance again, only this time he was breathing raggedly.

"Is that all you've got? And you think you're so tough! When my Dad finds out, you're going to be so sorry! In fact, he's going to be so angry you've." The last word was muffled as Nicky's foot collided with Gouki's throat, knocking him out. With Gouki apprehended, Nicky made his way back to Sansho and Ginger who were ready to escape without him.

"Well, we've got the kids, so we should really get out of here before their father arrives. After all, Garlic is going to reward us handsomely for this!" Ginger chuckled, inviting the other two to join in. "Now we really need to get going!" Ginger, Nicky and Sansho flew away with their two prisoners in tow.

...

Goku and Master Roshi made their way back to where Gouki and Gohan were only to discover that they were gone. More worryingly, there were signs of a slight struggle indicating that Gohan and Gouki were kidnapped and that the latter put up a fight. Goku stood in thought over how to break the news to Chi-Chi and how to go about getting his sons back. What he had to do was call Kenzo and then call Krillin, Yamcha and Tien in order to help presuming that they had been training since the last World Martial Arts Tournament. But first, all he had to do was tell his wife and her reaction would be much less than pleasant. With that thought in mind, Goku and Master Roshi made their way back to the house with the old hermit standing outside of it.

"What the hell do you mean Gohan and Gouki were kidnapped? So we're going to be getting toes left outside the house now? How can you be so irresponsible?! Honestly, I should never have let you train them if I'd known this was going to happen. I suppose you're going to want to call the others and go rescue them while I'm worried sick?!" Chi-Chi's yelling could be heard for miles, even causing birds to fly and bears to find caves to shelter to avoid her voice.

"And if you don't rescue them don't even think of coming back you got that?!" Chi-Chi finished this tirade by walking away and slamming the door behind her.

"Well, that could've gone much better. Oh well, guess I'd better call the others and see if they can help." After what took about an hour, Goku managed to call Kenzo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien and explained everything. With this taken care of, Goku waited for the Z-Fighters to arrive at Mount Paozu so they could go and rescue Gohan and Gouki.

...

After arriving in Garlic's Castle, Ginger ordered Nicky and Sansho to take the Four Star Dragon Ball and put Gohan and Gouki into their own separate rooms each with a table laden with food. Making their way to the outside courtyard of the castle they handed Garlic Junior the Four Star Dragon Ball and placed it with the other Dragon Balls. They even had the presence of mind to kneel down.

"Good job. Now I can finally release my father from his confinement in the Dead Zone and help him conquer the world! Now he can make Kami pay for trapping him there! Revenge will be sweet and served very cold." Garlic Junior spared himself a few seconds to smile before the seriousness of the situation became obvious.

"Eternal Dragon, I summon you! Come forth and grant my wish!" Garlic Junior shouted to the heavens and suddenly, a yellow dragon-shaped bolt flew into the sky as it began to darken. The yellow bolt coalesced into a gigantic, green-scaled dragon with red eyes and horns jutting out of its head who stared down at Garlic Junior and his underlings with an expression of boredom. Shenron had been summoned on numerous occasions over the millennia to the point where he had granted every conceivable wish that he could possibly grant. Having a tiny, blue-skinned Makyan gather the Dragon Balls made for an interesting change.

"WHAT IS YOUR WISH? THAT IS WHY YOU HAVE SUMMONED ME IS IT NOT? YOU HAVE SUMMONED ME TO GRANT YOUR WISH NOT ENGAGE IN GAMES OF CHANCE. WELL? WILL YOU PLEASE GET ON WITH IT?" Shenron didn't seem all that thrilled to be summoned yet again by another mortal looking for another wish to be granted.

"Oh mighty Shenron, I wish for my father to be released from his confinement in the Dead Zone and with that same wish brought back here!" Garlic Junior lifted his hands to the dragon in a gesture of triumphant gratitude.

"YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED, FAREWELL!" The dragon disappeared and the Dragon Balls flew off into the distance.

Suddenly, a portal opened and a tall, blue-skinned figure wearing baggy black trousers, a red belt and a black long-sleeved robe-like garment stepped through it. Garlic Junior's underlings immediately knew who it was and prostrated themselves on the ground before their master with their heads down to the ground. Only Garlic Junior was standing, staring at his father who had changed immeasurably since his confinement had begun.

"Now that you're all done lollygagging," Garlic Senior rasped as a result of being confined so long, "We've got to prepare to take revenge on that blasted Kami for defeating my once-powerful army and having the gall to seal me away in that hellish Dead Zone place. I have been fantasising about how much I want to make Kami suffer, I want to make him hurt so much that even his regenerative abilities won't save him. Now get up or I will make you stand myself and I would hate to torture my loyal servants so soon." The being smiled as Ginger, Nicky and Sansho stood up in fear of their master.

Having scared his servants, Garlic Senior turned towards his son and knelt down to face him. "And you haven't changed a bit haven't you? My miserable excuse for a son, I should've killed you when I had the chance and now I'm stuck with you. What a useless son of a bitch. Honestly, what have you done other than send others to do your dirty work? Back when I was your age, I was already a remorseless killer and I wasn't so fucking short either. Now you're just some barely-grown brat in a stupid robe. Get out of my sight at once, all of you." He stared into the distance as his son and minions returned to the castle.

...

Goku watched as Kenzo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien arrived outside the house, each of them wondering who kidnapped Gohan and Gouki as well as why the kidnappers wanted to kidnap them apart from the 4 Star Dragon Ball. "Who could've possibly kidnapped them? It's not like Piccolo has resurfaced yet, it just doesn't make sense," Krillin was speaking for everyone as he didn't really understand why Gohan and Gouki were kidnapped in the first place. Yeah, whoever did it needed the Dragon Balls but it just seemed remarkably strange.

"Well, we should really be focussing on the big picture guys," Kenzo looked over at the others, "Goku needs us to help rescue Gohan and Gouki so we're going to help him. Is that understood?" Kenzo growled, making the human contingent calm down.

They watched as Goku exited the house with a concerned expression on his face. "Well I don't know where Gohan and Gouki were taken, but I'm sure there's someone who does know." Goku's train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of Kami, the current Guardian of the Earth and sort of relative of Piccolo.

"I believe I can be of some assistance in this matter. You see, I fought Garlic Junior's father for the position of Guardian many years ago after the death of the previous Guardian. The previous Guardian and I could see the evil in his heart, but he still persevered in his quest to become Guardian and gathered an army to do so. Eventually, it got to the point where there had to be confrontation between the two sides, and after destroying his army, I fought him in single combat and defeated him but spared his life. However, Garlic Senior proved to be ungrateful and I sealed him away into the Dead Zone. His castle is a few hours away from this location, if you're looking to find your sons, Goku. I think that his son wishes to unseal his father from the Dead Zone. So you must hurry," Kami flew off into the distance, bemoaning his inability to do more besides providing information. With this information having been given, Goku and company flew off in the direction of the castle.

"Are you two sure that you can work as a team?" Goku turned his head towards Kenzo and Tien as he said this, "I know you've had your issues in the past but now is the time to set them aside. Look, now is really not the time for bickering." The fighters in question nodded as they flew towards their destination. They knew that it would be a matter of time before their arrival at Garlic's castle and a matter of time before they had to fight whoever it was that took Gohan and Gouki.

After flying for a few hours, they could see their destination looming menacingly in the distance and their eyes collectively widened. The castle was a gigantic building that had obviously been there for a significantly long time and perhaps it had been there for millennia and was unused before Garlic Senior and his family had made a base there. Goku gave the crew a thumbs-up sign as they prepared to make their descent.

...

Meanwhile, Gouki had awoken first and saw the big table with a sumptuous banquet of food on it that was unguarded and didn't look tampered with in any way. Being his father's son, he clambered onto a chair and started eating as much as he possibly could, ignorant of Gohan waking up. Stopping eating, Gouki hopped off the chair and landed beside Gohan while also clearing food residue away from his face.

"Come on bro, they've put out this great feast for us! If you don't want any now I'll save you some for later but you have to be quick okay?" Gouki was still oblivious to the fact that Gohan was still shaken by the experience of being kidnapped. "Don't cry, dad's going to be here to rescue us any minute. Oh no, now you're going to start." Gouki was beginning to get very exasperated with his twin brother especially when there was food left uneaten.

"I want to go home", Gohan sniffled causing Gouki to roll his eyes in annoyance, "I want dad to rescue us. Is the door locked or is it just closed?" Gohan was still sniffling slightly.

"I think the door's closed instead of locked. Hang on, just let me try something." Gouki blasted the door, causing it to fall outwards, unfortunately Gohan wandered off in a different direction. This meant that Gouki had to go and find him and that could take hours that should have been used to escape. He knew that Gohan would probably find his way around the castle instead of just escaping.

"Gohan, where are you? Aren't we going to escape now or what?" Gouki almost swore to himself as he sprinted to find Gohan.

After about an hour, he found Gohan standing at the bottom of an oddly placed apple tree staring up at the fruit. From the looks of it, it seemed that Gohan was quite hungry because he didn't partake of the banquet earlier. Suddenly, Nicky sprinted into the same clearing and swore loudly before attempting to warn the kids away from the tree.

"Hey, that's not a normal apple tree! That's not a normal apple either! It's an alcoholic apple, and if Garlic finds out you've escaped and stolen apples he's going to kill me and skin me alive! And I really enjoy my skin as well too and I really love being alive. You know, as much as any demon alien probably could. Oh no don't eat that damn thing!" Nicky let out a horrified gasp as Gohan took some of the apples and ate them. Of course, Gohan had leapt up to the edge of the wall and did some sort of drunken dance along the wall. And this was before Gohan had fallen off the wall causing Gouki to fly up off the wall and try and catch him.

Having managed to somehow catch his younger brother, Gouki hid behind a pillar in the castle and waited for his captors to find them. He knew that there was no way he could fight the three of them by himself because his father was much stronger than he was. Looking out from behind the pillar, he could see four familiar orange-clad figures and a man with three eyes, green pants and a white shirt. It took almost all of his willpower to not let out a shout of joy as he made his way over to them. However, it didn't take long for Ginger, Nicky and Sansho to find them and they were going to be incredibly angry given that there were intruders in the castle.

"Gouki, Kenzo and I are going to go look for whoever's in charge around here and give him a piece of my mind. It's not safe for you to stay here. Besides, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien can take those guys on anyway. C'mon, we need to get going!" Gouki handed the still groggy Gohan over to Kenzo before they set off to where they had sensed Garlic Senior's power earlier.

...

Krillin looked nervously at Ginger whereas Tien and Yamcha each took long, calculating looks at their respective opponents who were standing some distance away in the long hallway who were no doubt doing the same. "They're kind of like King Piccolo's spawn aren't they? Well, except they're stronger, more evil and much uglier, especially that weird tall one. I don't think they're same race as Piccolo though, whatever that was. I know that they're not human like how either Piccolo wasn't. We've got to be really careful about this because they might kill us if we let our guard down." Krillin had to lower his voice to a whisper so their opponents couldn't hear him. It wouldn't have mattered anyway because Ginger, Nicky and Sansho flew closer to them and started firing energy blasts at them in order to create a distraction. Krillin, Yamcha and Tien each dodged the blasts and flew away a safe enough distance before flying at their respective opponents and going on the offensive. Their individual clashes taking them to different parts of the castle, with Krillin and Ginger continuing their battle in the hallway.

Krillin and Ginger threw an increasingly rapid flurry of punches and kicks at each other which served as a way finding out what it would take for one to get the advantage against the other, and much to his surprise it was Ginger flying back in shock. "How the hell are you so strong human? I can't believe it. There's just no way you're so powerful, you can block my strikes. How, damn it?! HOW?! How are you able to fight me?" Krillin could hear Ginger almost screaming with rage and frustration. "Well, I've had some practice fighting non-humans so that counts for something!" Krillin's response was punctuated by punches and strikes of his own, his punches and kicks hit Ginger hard and at one point the Makyan was even punched through a pillar before ending up in an undignified heap.

Krillin watched as Ginger stood up and coughed out blood, spitting it on the stone floor before dropping into a fighting stance. "You think you've beaten me human but you have no idea of what's in store for you now. You see, if I say one word, my power and that of my comrades will increase and you won't have an ice cube's chance in hell of killing me. And I'll even have the pleasure of decapitating you and keeping your useless skull as a trophy. Yes, that shall be a most enjoyable activity don't you think? And this is the word maggot; GINGER!" Krillin only watched in horror as Ginger's body grew in mass and he could sense Ginger's power level increasing as he removed two katana like swords from his shoulders. "Now, I'm not asking you human, but I am telling you; it's time for you die." Krillin just about dodged the blades as they sliced into the air where he was but seconds previously. Krillin narrowly dodged the next few slashes and managed to repeatedly punch Ginger in the face and fire an energy blast in his face before flying backwards onto solid ground. The bald former monk also hid behind a pillar where he could hear Ginger's ranting.

"Come on out and face me human! You think that you trick me into letting my guard down, but you're wrong! I've killed insects bigger than you worm and now I'm going to fucking murder you for your dirty tricks. And then, forget making a trophy out of your skull because I will track the pieces of your dismembered corpse all around the castle." This monologue was cut off by Krillin breaking a pillar from its base and smashing Ginger with it hard, sending the powered up Makyan flying like a gigantic green baseball. Krillin's joy was short lived as Ginger had sheathed his katana like swords and fired a powerful beam at him which was countered with a Kamehameha wave. The two energy beams collided into an explosive energy dome that devastated parts of the hallway rendering those parts impassable. Krillin and Ginger were both caught in the dome and they were suffering the consequences which included burns, battle damage and the smell of burning skin everywhere.

"Why won't you just die, it's like nothing I do will kill you! Well, I'm sure you'll be dead eventually! I just have to keep on trying to kill you!" Ginger punctuated this with energy beams that kept almost connecting. Of course, what the Makyan couldn't notice was that Krillin had flown behind him and was preparing an attack of his own. "Well, I'm sure you can tell that to someone in the next dimension asshole! KIENZAN!" The energy disc decapitated an unsuspecting Ginger, whose head separated from his shoulders the minute his body hit the ground. The former monk gave a sigh of relief as he flew away to find Tien and Yamcha, even flipping off Ginger whose now dead eyes couldn't see the gesture.

Yamcha and Tien faced off against Nicky and Sansho who were shocked by their unexpected resistance and their power. "C'mon guys, you can do better than that!" Yamcha's confidence was justified as they had been managing to fight the Makyans on an almost equal footing. "Are you sure it's such a good idea to gloat Yamcha?" Tien almost deadpanned, "Seeing as I kicked your ass the last time?" Yamcha gave a short nod as himself and Tien observed Nicky and Sansho almost smiling at them. They could hear the words pepperoni and tutti frutti and they saw Sansho and Nicky power up and sense them becoming stronger as well. "Well shit, only thing we can do now is fight them then!" Yamcha shouted as Nicky and Sansho fired a combined blast of green and pink energy at them. What Yamcha and Tien did next was fly in opposite directions and collide with Nicky and Sansho respectively.

After a round of lightning speed clashes, Yamcha and Tien were either gaining the upper hand or being gradually worn down by their opponents. "Looks like we've only got the one chance at this so let it count; TRIBEAM HA," Tien timed his Tribeam attack to coincide with Yamcha's Wolf Fang Blast which collided with the opposing beams and pushed the beams back, causing a huge explosion that almost sent them flying.

Yamcha and Tien soon recovered and went to find Krillin so the three of them could go and help Goku and Kenzo fight whoever was in charge of the castle. By the time they did, the fighting had already begun in a different part of the castle.

...

Kenzo and Goku finally made it to the outer courtyard of the castle where Garlic Senior and Garlic Junior had been waiting for quite some time. The small blue Makyan had his arms crossed where as Garlic Senior had a gigantic and predatory smile on his face, he had the expression of a polar bear that had happened upon a seal cub. "We've got Gohan and Gouki so all we have to do is fight these guys and we're home free. I could really use a nice home-cooked meal and a relaxing bath or something. And I have to help Launch put out the trash, so let's just get rid of these guys fast." Kenzo cracked his neck and shook his limbs out slightly; this was the first real fight he and Goku had since Piccolo so they had no intention of losing.

"I'm happy that you're so eager. But I don't think that you will be eager for long when I'm through with you. Then again, you weren't expecting me to make it easy for you! Well, I'm glad that you're going to find this rather difficult to say the least!" Garlic Junior laughed as he transformed into his most powerful and much taller form. "I know you're shocked, but others of my race can become stronger in this way and you're going to find out just how strong I am! Have at you!" Garlic Junior charged at and clotheslined Goku and Kenzo who had no idea how to fight the now tall Makyan. Despite this lack of knowledge, the Saiyan duo delivered a sharp series of kicks to Garlic Junior's stomach and face in between dodging the latter's offense. Gradually, the balance of the fight began to shift towards their favour despite Garlic Junior packing a much stronger offense. Gohan and Gouki watched the fight from a safe vantage point away from the fighting but still within sight of Goku and Kenzo.

Garlic Senior stared at his son's fight with Goku and Kenzo with a measure of impatience because he knew that he could get the job done almost as fast if not faster. "You know what, if you want your kids so badly," He was referring to Goku when he said it, "You're going to have to be content with their ashes you stupid son of a bitch!" He launched a breath beam at Gohan and Gouki only to have Garlic Junior stop fighting Goku and Kenzo then move to intercept the blast. As the smoke cleared, Garlic Junior's unconscious and still transformed body was on the ground with Gohan cowering behind Gouki.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! He was your son and you tried to kill him for doing the right thing? You don't deserve to be a father if that's how you treat your children! Your son wished for you to be unsealed from wherever you were for Kami's sake! You're just a mindless thug, not even Piccolo would stoop to such wrongdoing." This provoked a laughing fit from Garlic Senior as a response.

"You're comparing me to a Namek? I really didn't think that you had the audacity to compare me with the relative of someone who sealed me away in a horrifying expanse of darkness for bloody millennia with only my thoughts of revenge to keep me company. I had to endure burning heat and freezing cold at random with no escape from either. Now that I have escaped, I will enact my brutal vengeance upon this planet and be done with it. Now you will die!" Garlic Senior cackled with malevolent glee as he sent a Demon Explosion shock wave at Goku and Kenzo who barely managed to dodge it.

Goku and Kenzo make a charge towards Garlic Senior and they whirled around him while also attempting to dodge Garlic's attacks and land some hits of their own, something made increasingly difficult by the Makyan's new-found strength and determination for revenge. The brute smashed the two Saiyan's heads together and threw them away before flying towards them and slamming them into the ground with as much force as he could muster. He then repeated the process by stamping down on each of them and hearing them cry out in pain.

"I thought you Saiyans were supposed to be stronger than this? I think being on this planet too long has softened you weaklings up to the point where a being such as I am can utterly destroy you! I shall have to put you out of your misery before I kill Kami and his relative. Have I told you how long I have waited for my revenge yet?" Garlic Senior could see Goku and Kenzo nodding as he allowed them to stand on their own two feet and try and fight him again. "Oh this is just sad; I've killed infants stronger than you I'll have you know. But that won't matter because I'm going to utterly destroy you!" Garlic Senior fired an energy ball at Goku and Kenzo which exploded outwards just as they dodged it and collided with the Makyan for a second time. Only this time, they each kicked Garlic Senior in the stomach and flew after him, aiming a dizzyingly fast array of punches and kicks at him. Much to their shock and horror, Garlic Senior stood up again and spat out some blood and checked the damage that the two Saiyans had inflicted on him.

"Hah. I think I might have been wrong about you," Garlic Senior cracked his neck and stretched a bit, "You're both much stronger than I previously thought and I have seriously underestimated you much to my surprise. I'm afraid you'll have to forgive me, I'm not nearly quite as sharp as I once was but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve!" He prepared for his ultimate attack, to open the Dead Zone up and seal his opponents as well as his weakling son in it, however he didn't count on Gohan and Gouki reacting to that in the way they did.

"HEY! Leave our daddy and our friends alone you big bully!" Gohan almost roared, surprising everyone else, "Leave us alone or face the consequences; KAMEHAMEHA!" This time, both Gohan and Gouki fired the famous blue blast at a deeply shocked Garlic Senior, who screamed loudly as he was gradually reduced to ashes on the wind. Gohan and Gouki collapsed to the ground in a state of exhaustion causing Goku to fly to his sons to see if they were alright. Kenzo on the other hand was standing in the same place observing a flash of white lightning that caused a tall white-haired man clad in green robes who also had green eyes with slit pupils to stand before them.

"There's no need for you to fear me," the white-haired man began, "I am Ryuuji, the Dragon Kai and I mean you no harm. Goku, your sons will be fine, they're just exhausted from over-exerting themselves and I think that they could become much stronger in future years. I wouldn't have anything to worry about on that front anyway, it's just that they need consistent work to unlock and maintain their true potentials." Ryuuji took long and purposeful strides towards Garlic Junior's unconscious form and the unconscious forms of Gohan and Gouki. He knelt down healed Gohan and Gouki first, who ran towards Goku shortly after their recovery.

"Just one question though," the powerful and seemingly ageless being asked, "Do you want me to heal Garlic Junior as well? I saw him save the children from certain death which could prove that he has some latent tendency towards goodness that must be realised. If he were to die, then others would not be able to realise that same potential. Then it's settled, I'll heal him," Ryuuji knelt down again, and placed the palms of his hands over Garlic Junior's wound as a bright light cascaded over the Makyan. With this done, Ryuuji stood up again and disappeared while giving a wave to the Z-Fighters, who had by now caught up with one another.

Unbeknownst to them, Garlic Junior stood up and looked at them with an expression of shock on his face, shock that he'd been spared and shock that he hadn't joined his father in hell. Admittedly, that shock was mixed with relief as his father would've been castigating him for being weak despite being released from confinement thanks to him. "What reason do we have to trust you? You're not going to try and kidnap my kids again now that your father's dead?" Garlic Junior merely shook his head at pineapple-hair to indicate that he wouldn't do such a thing again after having learnt his lesson this time. "Oh, and you have to promise to end your vendetta with Kami." This was another promise that would be easily kept, seeing as Garlic Senior would be enjoying the fruits of his life of sin somewhere in hell. Much to his surprise, Goku was much more forgiving than you'd normally expect for someone whose children got kidnapped by weird demon aliens. After having made his apologies to Goku and company, Garlic Junior or just plain Garlic, flew away with the events of the last few hours clearly having made an impression on him.

...

Commander Thomas Beckett had been called many names during his storied military career, his codename the Silver Fox was merely the most kind of those names. The fact that he had requisitioned one of the alien pods that had crashed on Mount Paozu in order to extract hair and skin to make alien clones meant that he was perfectly willing to do whatever it took to defend Earth despite some of the things he did not being strictly ethical. It had been a long twenty-three years but the clones, now renamed Brian and Orson instead of their codenames had become much stronger than he could have been. He smiled as a scientist working on another one of his projects almost tripped over his lab-coat running to tell him something.

"Commander Beckett sir, the androids that you wanted built from some of the designs that we took from one of Dr Gero's laboratories are almost ready! It's just that it'll take some time before they're activated sir. But with all due respect, I don't know why you'd need them when you've got Brian and Orson?" Beckett couldn't help but laugh at the question. After all, he learned from his encounters with the Red Ribbon Army and the madness of Dr Gero that he had to be prepared for every single situation to the point where he had entire courses of action mapped out for each of them. Although Brian and Orson were a lot stronger than they were a few years ago, they needed to be much stronger to deal with any manner of threat as proven by the Piccolo incidents and the fact that a seemingly untrained fighter could defeat Piccolo twice was mind-boggling. "Alright, just bring Brian and Orson in here and tell them to report to the Training Simulation and Gravity Room parts of the complex for more training. They'll need it for when Piccolo comes back or when Gero decides to put his mad schemes in motion if he hasn't already done so. Besides we've got enough to stop them when they do, trust me." Beckett fumbled in his coat pocket and put a lemon candy in his mouth in lieu of smoking, something he hadn't done in years. He watched as the scientist ran off to look for Brian and Orson and smiled.

His smile faded as the video screen flickered to life and a full image of Suzuki's corpulent face appeared beaming on the screen with an expression of extreme disgruntlement. "It's one thing stealing one of the alien pods, but making clones of all things? Why it's almost as if you're planning on shoring up your own power base aren't you?" Suzuki stroked his chin in thought, "It's almost as if you've built your own fortress and hired all these scientists to create an army of your own." Beckett almost couldn't believe the irony; Suzuki had spent a few years in the Red Ribbon's pocket and he even worked with Gero before his convenient change of heart. He'd have laughed if he wasn't aware of the seriousness of his situation.

Beckett didn't expect Suzuki's rage to come through, especially when his former association with Gero was common knowledge. "Now you listen to me you jumped up son of a bitch, don't you EVER bring up the past when it's your career that's on the line. Stealing that pod was a treasonous offense and the only reason I haven't reported it was to stop you from dragging me through the mud with you. Oh Beckett, you think that you're so smart, but you're not really because you're just some grunt that got lucky. Well, take that horseshoe out and listen, I'll be expecting a FULL report from you about what you've been doing there, and you'd better deliver it to me. Or else," Beckett turned off the screen with an expression of supreme distaste on his face. Soon, his androids would be completed and he'd be able to order the defence of Earth from all threats, then all his detractors would be forced to sing a different tune.

...

Prince Vegeta gazed impassively at the desert planet through the relative comfort of his space pod. While he never doubted Nappa's judgment in these matters, a planet that is mostly a sandy desert complete with all manner of monsters didn't strike him as a particularly appealing headquarters as far as planning and executing rebellions went. However, the Prince knew that getting his revenge against Frieza for killing his family, home planet and a sizeable portion of his race would take a long time and his plan would have to be a good one. "Looks like you'd have to thank Prince Ortega for raiding a PTO outpost and killing its troops. It seems that the distraction's paid off and Frieza hasn't traced it back to us yet. I know what you'd say, that Ortega is nothing more than a bastard son, but he's your brother and the sooner you accept that the better." Vegeta heard Nappa's voice over the communication link between the pods and rolled his eyes. Yes, Ortega had raided that PTO outpost but that didn't mean that he'd automatically acknowledge him as his brother let alone as a prince of the remnant of the Saiyan race like him. Pushing these thoughts aside for the moment he watched as the three space pods descended into the unforgiving climate of the desert world.

"Please keep your arms crossed across your chest and your legs in the pod at all times when descending into a planet's atmosphere. Please brace for impact."

Vegeta had heard this asinine safety message so many times that it had begun to lose all meaning. He'd done a little bit of research on the desert world and he knew that there were things that would kill him in worse ways on that planet than a stupid decision to open his pod during the swift descent. Staring at his surroundings, he saw the pods home in on their landing place and began the journey to the landing area at speed. After landing on the plateau in the midst of the desert, the three Saiyans disembarked and sat down a short distance away from their pods to plan their next move.

"Is immortality on the cards for us any more, Prince?" Nappa's voice rang out over the uninhabited desert, Raditz was thinking the same thing but didn't verbalise it.

"No. What Raditz will do," here Prince Vegeta nodded his head at Raditz, "is go to Earth, gather the Dragon Balls and wait for my instructions. Oh and you have to kill a sizeable amount of its inhabitants to make it look like you're on a mission so that Frieza doesn't get suspicious. After all, you do remember what happened the last time Frieza got suspicious don't you? He destroyed our planet and had a merry time murdering as much of our race as he could." The loss of their home planet and most of their race weighed heavily on the three Saiyans, Vegeta most of all no matter how much he tried to deny it.

"Isn't there something else you were meant to tell him, Prince?" Nappa nervously scratched his bald head as Prince Vegeta did not like to be reminded of things or corrected. "Isn't Raditz' brother and another Saiyan on Earth, shouldn't he inform them of our plan too? You know, seeing as it's kind of important?" Nappa looked over at Vegeta to gauge his reaction to his statement, but the Prince's eyes betrayed no sign of anger.

"Yes, thank you Nappa. Raditz, it will take you a year to travel to Earth and when you get there be sure to get your brother and his comrade on your side so they can help you gather the Dragon Balls. What you must do is wish for our planet and our race as well as giving us strength enough to defeat Frieza. This has to be done with the one wish, when that's done, just wait a further 2 years and we will arrive on Earth ready to assemble an army and defeat Frieza. And I will finally be able to have my revenge, do you understand?" The Prince's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree but this reference would have been lost on them.

"Yes Prince Vegeta, I understand. I will do my very best to carry out this mission and see its success." Raditz stood up and bowed to Vegeta before stepping into his space pod and watching as the door closed before it took off into the sky. The co-ordinates for Earth had already been preset, and Raditz wondered about the brother that he had never known. What he did know however, was that they needed all the help they could get in overthrowing the Arcosian tyrant and getting their revenge.


	5. Brothers' Clash Part 1

**Chapter 2: Brothers' Clash Part 1**

Over the course of his year-long journey to Earth, Raditz had repeated what Vegeta had told him about the majority of Earth's inhabitants in his mind. "Raditz, most Earthlings are weak beings who are unable to even use ki let alone sense it. However, there are a few Earthlings who can still use it, a remnant of the time when Earthlings had extended the reaches of their galactic empire through the usage of genetically altered super-soldiers who could use ki like other races can. Since the end of the humans' dominance they've again become sceptical of anything that is beyond their pitiful sphere of understanding, making them disbelieve ki as some sort of parlour trick. All you need to do Raditz is to find your brother and the other Saiyan and inform them of our plan and see if they'll co-operate with you." This was easier said than done as Kakarot and Kenzo had both fallen off the radar when they arrived on Earth so Raditz would have to find them before completing his mission.

Raditz stared out of his space pod as the small craft approached the blue marble called Earth. After having seen most of the other planets in Earth's solar system, all of these planets were barren and lifeless apart from Earth, which had readable life. However, he forced himself to focus on his mission which was finding his brother and Kenzo and informing them of everything if Kakarot hadn't been informed already which would save Raditz a lot of time seeing as there would be much less things to explain. If Raditz was to gather all the Dragon Balls by himself, he'd need plenty of time to do it before Vegeta and Nappa get to Earth themselves. The plan had come too close to fruition to fail, and failure would inevitably mean death due to Frieza's temper, paranoia and neuroses. Death was something that was a fact of life for Saiyans but Raditz also knew that there'd most likely never be an opportunity to enact the plan again because they'd be dead or on a prison planet in a Galick-forsaken galaxy somewhere.

Saiyans, Raditz reflected, enjoyed killing not because they derived pleasure from it but because they were good at fighting and killing and thanks to the power boost they get every time they come close to death and survive. The only Saiyan to not enjoy killing was the youngest of the 3 princes named Tarble, who had been exiled from Planet Vegeta for refusing to kill anyone. However, he was confident that Kakarot wasn't going to be weak regardless of whether there were still other life-forms on Earth or not, after all they were the sons of the freedom fighter Bardock who was certainly no slouch in terms of strength either. However, Frieza's reluctance to give himself, Nappa or Prince Vegeta any difficult missions for fear of them becoming stronger in leaps and bounds meant that it was more difficult to get that power-boost. Raditz' own power-level was merely 1,200 at its minimum amount, almost as a direct consequence of Frieza's paranoia.

Raditz eased back in his pod and closed his eyes and looked out of his pod as it began its descent to Earth, flying downwards through the atmosphere of the verdant blue marble he'd seen earlier. Now, all he had to do was find Kakarot, explain the plan and hope to Galick that he'd agree with it because he wasn't particularly looking forward to the prospect of killing the brother that he barely knew. He also knew that Nappa or Prince Vegeta wouldn't have been as patient in terms of offering Kakarot the opportunity seeing as they had no obligation to do so. To his left, he could see what looked like a large transport craft fly past him as he made his descent, the people in the craft staring at him in horror and fascination. "Hmm, guess they're not used to seeing aliens any more, oh well." He chuckled to himself as the pod's descent either slowed or accelerated down to the ground.

With the pod having finally landed, Raditz exited the pod and looked around him, checking for nearby power-levels and wondering if they were the Saiyans that he was looking for. "There's nothing, can't see the point of this at all, having to scour through all these weaklings is downright insulting. It's an absolute joke." He walked into a clearing and stepped into a vegetable plot, his ears picking up as a rotund man waddled into view pointing a shotgun in his face.

"Hey you, get off my land you hippy! Yeah, can't you read? Trespassers will be shot, and that includes you. Or maybe you didn't read the goddamn sign? Maybe that's it; now you better compensate me for any damage or I'm gonna have to shoot you anyway!" The farmer held a shotgun into Raditz' face, and motioned for Raditz to move in a threatening manner despite his gun being useless. Raditz quickly came to the conclusion that the farmer wasn't in any way familiar with Saiyans and the fact that he was holding a weapon that would've been outdated on any other planet proved that fact.

"Oh fine, go ahead and shoot me if that's going to make me move faster. Just see how much damage you can do. Let's see if you've got the guts." Raditz gave the farmer an almost sadistic smirk as the farmer shot him at point blank range.

As the smoke had cleared, Raditz stood with his arms folded observing the farmer almost soiling himself in fear and still pointing the gun at him like he was a common intruder or a vandal, not a warrior who depopulated planets on a regular basis. However, unlike Prince Vegeta, he was amused at this rather than insulted. That being said, he had his Saiyan pride, and as a result that farmer would have to die. "As much as I have enjoyed this little diversion, I'm afraid it's time I leave and it's time for you to die. So farewell to you good sir, DOUBLE SUNDAY!" Raditz cackled as he spread his arms and charged as well as released his main manoeuvre, the Double Sunday. He smiled as the farmer was reduced to nothing, as that was one less human he needed to kill in order to divert Frieza's suspicions. It was a dirty job, Raditz reasoned, but someone had to do it.

Although he briefly contemplated tracking the farmer's footsteps back to any potential dwelling, he decided against it in favour of putting his mission first. "Let's see if this thing can pick up any strong power levels. C'mon," Raditz checked his Scouter and could see that it had picked up a decent enough power level a few kilometres away. "Maybe it can tell where Kakarot is," he grumbled, flying in the direction of the power level he sensed.

...

Piccolo could still feel the humiliation he felt when he had lost to Goku in the finals of the last World Martial Arts Tournament. Yes, it had been 5 years but the memory of that defeat still lingered on even as he trained to become stronger. Goku had a punctured lung, broken ribs and a hole almost blasted through his stomach but he still managed to defeat Piccolo; a reincarnation of Daimao himself. The difference between himself and Daimao was that while Daimao was assured of his own superiority until his death, Piccolo had felt the sting of defeat and trained to erase that sting.

He was interrupted from his training as he sensed a strong power level moving towards him and a most unfamiliar one at that. "Has Goku finally decided to try and fight me again? And how did he become so strong in 5 years? This doesn't make sense, and Goku was opposed to killing unless absolutely necessary from what I gleaned from Daimao's memories. I don't think it matters I'm still going to fight whoever it is." Piccolo growled, he hadn't had a good fight in years and he wanted to see the results of his training. Piccolo didn't have long to wait as a long-haired and armour-clad warrior landed somewhere behind him.

"I don't think that you're the one I'm looking for, but I'm sure that you can help me right? If not, well I have ways of making you talk Namek." Piccolo could Raditz almost spit out the last part of that sentence, almost as if in contempt.

"What did you just call me?" Piccolo slowly turned around to face Raditz, "What was that word?" Piccolo repeated the question slowly, so the stranger could understand the question.

"You're a Namekian right? From Namek, which is your home planet after all," Raditz started, unaware that this information would've been lost on Piccolo, "You're not like any Namek I've encountered in the past though. No, you're different aren't you? You enjoy fighting and killing as much as any Saiyan, as a matter of fact, you'd have made a better Saiyan than a Namek. It's a shame really." Piccolo was almost immediately on-guard after the last comment, aware that Raditz was not to be trifled with.

"You're right; I am different from a usual Namekian. Of course, that's by my own choice and of no business of yours. Actually, I'm not the strongest being on this planet as you might have guessed. I believe you might be looking for Goku, but he's not here, I'm sure you could use that hardware of yours to find him though. Don't know why you'd need me. I wonder if Goku has a different name that you're just not telling me." Piccolo's facial expression could only be described as a lopsided smile.

"Well, I was looking for my brother Kakarot, and this Goku character might well be him. I shan't be troubling you any longer then," Raditz began to fly away, but stopped in surprise as Piccolo fired an energy blast at him that narrowly missed. "Well, you're certainly different from any other being I've come across. Most would quiver in fear at the mere sight of a Saiyan, but you don't. This will be most interesting." The Saiyan warrior descended to where Piccolo was standing, checking his power with the Scouter.

"I don't think that piece of crap will do you any good," Piccolo sneered, "You see, my cloak and turban are weighted so I can train better. And when I take them off like so, I become stronger plus I've been training like this for 5 years so I think that you'll get more than you're expecting." Piccolo removed his cloak and turban, throwing them to the ground and looking at Raditz' slightly perturbed face. "Judging from your face, I don't think you've seen someone using this method of training before. Oh well, I think there's been plenty of talking don't you?" The Namek lunged at Raditz who promptly blocked Piccolo's initial strike before the two combatants began fighting.

Raditz and Piccolo threw a series of punches and kicks at each other that almost became invisible to any outside observer, the two warriors were blocking every strike the other made. However, Raditz got the upper hand and smashed Piccolo in the face and stomach causing the Namek to double over and cough up blood before swearing loudly. "Is that all you got you son of a bitch? Yeah, your brother can hit harder than you can, the bastard almost fucking killed. All you can do is force me to double over? That all you can do to me you piece of shit?!" Piccolo had stood up and spat blood in Raditz' face before going on the offensive again with another series of punches and kicks, making the Saiyan warrior seriously doubt the success of his mission with beings like this on Earth. "How are you so strong? I don't believe this; they told me that there weren't beings like you on this planet! No, this ends now, and I think I know how to make this end. You see, I've got something for situations like this and fighters like you. Now it's time for you to pray to whatever god you believe in, SATURDAY CRUSH!" Raditz fired a ball of pink energy that engulfed Piccolo and thought that was the end of it before flying to where he got the reading for Goku's power level.

Meanwhile, Piccolo stood up, his left arm almost completely burnt and blackened despite his having survived the Saturday Crush. He gritted his teeth and ripped his left arm off and watched as a new limb regenerated in its place. After that, he walked over to where his cloak and turban were and put them back on. "Looks like I'll have to team with Goku if I want to beat this guy, and I doubt I'll have a choice in the matter. Maybe we can settle the score after Raditz is out of the way, I think he'd be stronger this time, but I've got a few new movies. But I'll have to warn him and his stupid friends about Raditz, damn it. My grudge can wait," the Namek sighed as he took off to the skies himself.

...

Despite having been forgiven for his actions the previous year, Garlic Junior or just plain Garlic now felt incredibly out of place at the barbeque held at Master Roshi's island home. Of course, Garlic never had friends in the truest sense of the word because his dead father viewed friendship as a weakness and his servants were only loyal to him because he was his father's son. Out of the corner of his eye he could Arale and Bulma giving him a quizzical expression and asking him, "Hey, do you want any food before Goku and Kenzo end up eating everything? Seeing as we've seen that happen at least once and it's not pretty." The Makyan shook his head at the women and went back to observing everyone; Launch and Chi-Chi were by now chatting to Bulma and Arale while Yamcha had wisely elected to man the barbeque.

Gouki unlike Gohan was well able to talk to the other guests at the barbeque and generally interacting with everyone including Kenzo's son Touma. Gohan on the other hand, was hiding somewhere and observing everyone else and not talking to them. "Hey, Gohan, have you said hello to everyone?" Goku had almost immediately noticed that Gohan was reticent in relation to interacting with others despite defeating the evil Garlic Senior a year previously, proving that he along with Gouki could defend the Earth in future with the proper training.

"Don't worry about it," Master Roshi muttered in between bites from a hamburger, "I think Gohan's got plenty of time to learn how to be confident. Besides, you and Chi-Chi can't keep worrying about him forever. It's not like you guys are doing anything wrong if Gouki's realy confident and Gohan's not, that's all I'm saying." The Turtle Hermit went back to his food and trying to make passes at Launch, which were all deflected by the woman in question.

The party was soon interrupted by a familiar and unwelcome Namek landing on the sandy beach and almost slumping over before standing up right. Kenzo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien all immediately dropped into their respective fighting stances before Goku could defuse the situation. "Piccolo, I don't care if you came here looking for a rematch, it can wait. Now, you'd better tell me what's going on or I'm not going to be holding my friends off anymore. So, spill the beans already." Piccolo wasn't expecting this new seriousness to Goku only 5 years since their last fight, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Look Goku, I didn't come here to try and get you to agree to a rematch. What I did come here to tell you is that someone who claimed to be your brother is headed to this location and he's stronger than both of us. As much as the idea repulses me to my very core, I'm afraid we've got no choice but to team up against him. Look, if we don't we're all going to die so let's put all that unpleasantness behind us and I promise not to try to kill you or take over the world again." Piccolo extended a hand outwards to Goku and company, who'd since moved closer to Kame House after his arrival.

Piccolo slowly turned around with an expression of fear on his face as Raditz landed on the ground in front of him. "Please stand aside Namek, I've got business to discuss with the brother I haven't seen in approximately 25 years so would you be so kind? Oh, and how rude of you not to introduce me, especially after I thought I killed you and everything." The Saiyan warrior's eyes focused on Goku's and he smiled slightly, "And Kakarot, well this has been a most pleasant surprise. I'd thought you were dead but since my superiors had said that you were still alive, this would be the perfect family reunion. Surely you know the name of your true home planet?"

Sufficed to say, there was a long list of things that Goku hadn't expected to happen, seeing his long-lost brother after such a long time and hearing his brother tell him of his Saiyan heritage was very high on that list. From what he could tell, Raditz was being deadly serious about whatever it was he had been planning so it seemed only fair for him to have questions of his own. "Our home planet was called Planet Vegeta wasn't it?" Goku was the one to ask the questions now and he took that opportunity with both hands, "You really think I'd abandon my friends and family for a brother I've never met before now? Why are you and what makes you think I'd want to help you?" The situation was becoming almost unbearably tense as the two brothers glared pointedly at each other.

"I'm sorry for being unclear Kakarot," Raditz clearly wasn't expecting to have to justify his mission to Goku after assuming that he'd be willing to help him. "Even if you don't want to help me, I'm going to tell you why I came to this planet and why you and Kenzo were sent here. You see, our race the Saiyans, made a deal with the Arcosian prince Frieza to provide man-power for his armies and conquer planets for him, one day Frieza reneged on that agreement in fear of our race. You two were sent to Earth as our home planet, Planet Vegeta was destroyed by him along with most of our race including our parents, Kakarot. Prince Vegeta, the great general Nappa and I were forced to remain in Frieza's army despite having full knowledge of what he did to our race and all the other atrocities committed in his name. This brings me right to the point of why I'm here. You see, Prince Vegeta heard tales of the Dragon Balls and how they could grant wishes and thought that if he used them to wish for our planet along with the rest of our race we could defeat Frieza. Of course, he also thought that you would join us. Well, now that you're not in the dark, what do you say?" Raditz was almost certain of what Kakarot would say; he was given a major chance to bring back the Saiyans and their family along with it.

"I already know the story of my heritage Raditz," Goku's voice could freeze the surrounding air if it could, "I also know that I want no part of it, something that I decided a long time ago, besides I wouldn't be much help to you because of a childhood head injury that got rid of most of my Saiyan instincts apart from enjoying to fight and eat. Besides, if what you say is true, then our father is a coldblooded killer like you with no respect for life and I want no part of it. I'm only going to say this once, get the hell of my planet." Raditz couldn't help but clap his hands in mocking disbelief.

"You know what, if that's the way you're going to be, you and your friends might as well just have to suffer a little bit. Besides, Kakarot, if you won't cooperate then I'll just have to carry out my mission myself and you'll just have to stop me." Raditz grinned in the direction of the Z-Fighters and Piccolo in anticipation of seeing what they could possibly do. "Or, I could just take your sons, Kakarot. You see, I was killing when I was their age and they probably haven't made their first kills yet, of course there's plenty of time for killing before Frieza dies." The warrior lunged to capture Gohan and Gouki but Krillin, Yamcha and Tien tried to stop him without powering up, resulting in Raditz hitting them aside before picking Goku's children up with each arm. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I must be going. If you want to see your children, again brother then you and your friends have will have to find me. Just sense my power level seeing as you've all got that ability." Raditz flew away with his nephews in his capture.

"Well, what do we do now?" Krillin was only just getting up to his feet, same with Yamcha and Tien.

"Well, you weaklings can follow the more powerful among us to confront Raditz or you can stay here out of my way. I really don't care which, besides even at your full power you've got no hope of beating him. And if you do decide to try and confront him stay out of my way, you got that?" An uncomfortable silence descended over the gathering as Piccolo flew away in pursuit of Raditz. The only sound came from Chi-Chi fainting and the dull thud resulting from her contact with the sandy beach; Launch, Bulma and Arale were carrying her inside Kame House until she'd recover from the shock.

"I suppose we've got no choice but to trust Piccolo right?" Kenzo's brows furrowed at the thought of trusting the being that had almost killed his oldest friend. "What if Piccolo decides to go after you after we take care of Raditz, then what? I mean, I know we trust Garlic, but Piccolo's different, Daimao was evil and Piccolo's no different. He'd sooner stab us all in the back than defend this planet and you know that better than I do!" He was going to continue in this vein, if not for Goku holding up his left hand almost to say that was enough.

"Look, I know what he did in the past, but my brother has my sons and someone who tried to kill me wants to help us. I know it'll be difficult, but we've no choice but to trust Piccolo." If anything, Goku seemed resigned to the fact that he needed to trust Piccolo in order to get his sons back again.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kenzo noticed his son Touma run into Kame House to tell Launch that he'd planned on leaving with Goku and the others to rescue Gohan and Gouki. Touma had heard every word and Kenzo could only assume that Launch was going to be less than thrilled when she found out that him and the others were going to temporarily join forces with Piccolo of all people. "So? I'm guessing that we should really get going now if we want to catch up with Piccolo." With this last piece of encouragement, the reunited Z-Fighters flew in pursuit of Raditz.

...

Over the past year, Ortega and a small enough Elite squad had raided PTO outposts, not for the sake of raiding them but to attain information in addition to create enough of a distraction for Vegeta's plan to work. The plan was to find a planet with Dragon Balls, in this case Earth and make a wish to bring back both Planet Vegeta and its dead inhabitants, including their family. Although what remained of the Saiyan race had been inhabiting planets that been colonised centuries or even millennia earlier, that remnant was still a force to be reckoned with despite all the PTO patrols done at Frieza's behest that had been gradually thinning the population.

Like his father the now dead King Vegeta, Ortega was tall and had the Vegeta family widow's peak hairstyle. What he also had was white armour and a replica of the Royal Pendant as the original had been destroyed by Frieza shortly after his father's death so revenge might have been the primary motivation for Ortega going along with his half-brother's plan. Revenge, as Kale had remarked many times, had become the thing that unified the two Princes and if not for the death of King Vegeta they would have continued on in their pointless bickering. Ortega and Kale were now waiting for the rest of their squad to finish combing the outpost for anything valuable or for any information on Frieza's next move. The rumour that had been circling around space-ports that they visited was that there were other planets besides Earth that had Dragon Balls and Frieza had plans to invade one of them in order to have his wishes granted.

Eventually, Jagai, Cress, Onio and Ruta arrived back in what was ostensibly the main part of the outpost and while they couldn't find anything valuable they did have an important piece of information for Ortega. They had found the most important piece of information that they could have possibly found in any raid over the previous year, they just didn't know how valuable. "Prince Ortega, we've gotten some information from one of the PTO scum that we couldn't kill right away. Do you want to hear it now or when we're at a safe distance blasting this shit-hole to the next dimension?" Jagai, the Saiyan with a high Mohawk hairstyle and black armour with yellow shoulder pads had inquired after kneeling before Ortega.

"Now would be good, besides if we just destroyed this place now Frieza's going to be suspicious and that'll ruin the plan. And if the plan is ruined, then it'll be traced back to Brother and it'll be traced back to me. I'd really prefer it if it weren't traced back to me so if you could tell me whatever it was you were planning on telling me it would be much appreciated." Unlike his half-brother, Ortega wasn't prone to fits of temper because his anger was much colder as a result of being loaded onto a spaceship with survivors from Planet Vegeta and watching his home die from a distance.

"Well, the grunt told us that Frieza knows that Planet Namek is one of the other planets where there are Dragon Balls and he plans to invade it in a few years in order to summon the dragon to get his wish. Now, I'm not exactly sure how a grunt could know that information so he could have got it from a higher-up, he did mention someone called Gnash but I don't think it means anything." Jagai observed Ortega's reactions to the information, one of them being a vague expression of disbelief. The large and portly Onio gave a vague expression of surprise at the mention of Gnash given that the large and brutish reptile-like mercenary had been murdered his way up the ranks in the PTO to become Frieza's third lieutenant and Gnash wasn't one to be sloppy.

Ortega had almost scoffed at the thought of Gnash slipping up when he had been so careful before. "I think the fact that the grunt would even mention Gnash is quite significant. From what I've known of Frieza via intelligence gathering, his lieutenants are among the few that he trusts anymore other than his own family who he barely tolerates and a bastard son by the name of Kuriza. Maybe Gnash has his own hidden agenda and that grunt's managed to discover it and the brute has forced the grunt into silence. It's high time we get to our pods and get the hell out of here." The long-haired Saiyan Cress and the spiky-haired Ruta along with Onio, Jagai and of course Kale all nodded in agreement as they went to find their respective space pods in order to make their get-away.

Firmly ensconced in his own space pod, Kale relayed a quick message via his scouter back to Ross and Taimu that Frieza had designs on Planet Namek and its set of Dragon Balls and that they had to tell Prince Ortega to tell his half-brother to hurry up with his end of the plan.

With all the other pods safely out of range of any blast aftershocks or debris from any ensuing blast, Ortega briefly opened the door of his pod to stand on it. He observed the PTO outpost and gave a cruel smile at the thought of the frustration it would cause for Frieza knowing that PTO outposts were gradually being destroyed by them. "Any words I might have to say would be inconsequential except I look forward to reports of your death Frieza! I'll just settle for the destruction of every PTO outpost I can destroy with this, Carbine Blaster!" A powerful blast of energy hurtled towards and through the PTO outpost resulting in a huge explosion, satisfied at this Ortega closed the doors to his pod and gave the order for the squad to leave with haste.

...

After hours of searching, Raditz found where his pod had crash-landed on Earth and landed there, roughly dropping Gouki and Gohan to the ground. He had assumed that the mission was going to be much easier than the complicated mess it had become. Raditz had thought that he was going to have an easy time convincing his brother to help him with his mission and summon the dragon to wish back all of the Saiyans that had died at Frieza's hands but that was not to be. It was becoming increasingly clear that he would have to do the unthinkable and kill the only family he had left to finally complete his mission, he knew that he would soon have no choice but to call Prince Vegeta and Nappa. He'd dreaded telling the Prince that he needed help, especially as Prince Vegeta was known for his bad temper when things didn't go his way which was happening more often than usual.

His mission had spiralled out of control and this was before considering what was to be done regarding his nephews. If he cut his losses and left Earth with Gohan and Gouki, they could be trained to fight and moulded into the perfect weapons to get revenge on Frieza. Alternatively, he could use them to strong-arm Kakarot into helping him and thus taking the credit for being the one who facilitated the success of the plan. The Saiyan warrior found that the second plan would be the least time-consuming and more suited to the timescale of the overall plan, which was to wreak vengeance upon Frieza and the Cold Family for their role in the death of most of the Saiyan race. There was no other option but to inform Nappa and Prince Vegeta of these developments and maybe even request their help despite it taking about 2 years to reach Earth from their position.

He grimaced with annoyance as he heard Gohan sobbing loudly and thought that it would've been better if he'd just decided to kidnap Gouki because the child was silent unlike Gohan was. "Will you just shut up you stupid little brat?!" Raditz strode over to where Gohan was sitting and knocked the little child unconscious with an expression of contentment on his face. "Now, if you start crying again, I will kill you." The Saiyan warrior addressed the unconscious hybrid before turning his attention towards Gouki. Raditz could tell that Gouki was much more suited to the rigours of life in the PTO and could have no qualms killing if he had to.

"Would you like to play a little game nephew? It's called shut the fuck up unless you want me to knock you out cold too. And would you like to know the rules?" Much to Raditz' satisfaction, Gouki shook his head in silence, wise enough to know not to be drawn in to his uncle's cruel game.

With Gouki miraculously pacified, Raditz knew that he had no choice to finally contact Nappa and Prince Vegeta with his Scouter to tell them what was going on. "Hello, Nappa, Prince Vegeta? It seems that the mission has run into a few problems that I hadn't foreseen. Kakarot doesn't want to join me and I've kidnapped his sons to use as leverage, not only that but there are some strong beings on this planet after all. I'd hate to bother you both like this, but any input would be most appreciated." Raditz hoped that they'd respond but dreaded the thought at the same time. His eyes widened as he could hear Prince Vegeta's voice over the Scouter.

"Why am I not surprised Raditz? If I knew any better it would seem like you needed your brother to increase your position in our little trio and turn the balance of power to your favour. But that's not why you needed him is it? I have to say, kidnapping his sons to use as leverage against him is incredibly smart though. If this doesn't work Nappa and I will be coming to Earth in 2 years and we will show no mercy. We will reduce Earth to ash if we must to get the Dragon Balls." Raditz cringed as Vegeta ended the communication. He knew that he was rapidly running out of time to get the Dragon Balls and summon the dragon and letting the opportunity to assert some influence slip through his hands.

...

It had taken the now reunified Z-Fighters a few hours to catch up to Piccolo, the Namek having since resigned himself to delaying his revenge against Goku in order to defeat Raditz. The group soon made its descent to where Raditz was, most of them looking for any signs of Goku's sons and they'd found them, even if Gohan was unconscious.

"Alright Raditz, I'm not going to join you even though I agree with your cause. This is my home now, and if you want to harm anyone on it especially my children, then you're going to have to deal with me first. And don't expect me to go easy on you because you're my brother!" Goku took off his weighted orange over-shirt just as he powered up, causing Raditz' eyes to widen in surprise slightly. Piccolo, Garlic and Kenzo began powering up as well, with Raditz almost disbelieving the readings from his Scouter.

"1,500? How the hell did you all become so strong? You were all so weak before, but no matter you're still no match for me! Let me show you how it's done!" A shockwave of energy emanated from Raditz accompanied by the warrior's cackling laughter.


End file.
